Particularly in motor racing, vehicle wheels are secured on the respective axle by means of a central wheel nut, which is screwed onto the vehicle hub. In order to prevent unwanted release of this single wheel nut and hence release of the entire vehicle wheel, retention devices have to be provided to additionally secure the central wheel nut. A wheel retention system of this kind, which furthermore also discloses a radial retention of the retention element used, is known from DE 102 07 815 B4, which is incorporated by reference herein. Here, the retention device consists of two retention elements offset by 180°, which are spring-loaded and which move out of the hub body after the wheel nut is screwed on and consequently secure the wheel nuts against twisting. The retention elements have a surface which rises toward the wheel nut and via which the retention elements can be pressed inward again to release the wheel nut in order to allow the necessary axial movement of the wheel nut. Just like the wheel, however, these retention elements are exposed to high loads, in particular due to operating loads, with the result that these retention elements can jam in the hub body. Such jamming sometimes makes it impossible to release the wheel nuts automatically by means of an impact wrench. The retention elements must then be released mechanically by hand with a high expenditure of force to enable the impact wrench subsequently to be used. This manual mechanical release is associated with a large expenditure of time, which is unwanted and disadvantageous especially in motorsport.
It would be desirable to avoid the abovementioned disadvantage in a simple and low-cost way.